Chapter 16
ERIC, THE big lummox, staggered a second step towards us, desperately trying to keep his feet.
Dirt and dust and chunks of cinder and charcoal fountained twenty feet into the air, blowing a hazy column of ash towards the thin horsetail clouds. I crouched back and jerked my arms up, palms defensively cradling the crown of my head so that my arms protected my head. The ground vibrated through my feet.
Eric threw himself forward. His feet skidded on the burned-out cinders, plunging him face-first into the ash.
One of the women under the blue plastic awning screamed.
Something launched itself out of the new hole in the ground.
A three-foot-wide cylinder, corrugated in gray and brown, thrust up from the ruptured earth. The ground shook like a busy construction site. My eyes vib
